hilltopworks

b.l.u.e. Legend of Water credits name roll call

Hi all,

It's that time again. Please let me know what name you would prefer for me to put into the credits of the upcoming patch. You can leave a comment on this post or send me a DM. If I don't hear from you, I'll be using the name you have set on Patreon.

-Hilltop

What it takes to fan-translate a game

Hi all,

Here's the video that covers how I hacked and translated the first game I ever worked on, Dr. Slump. This video covers a wide range of technical topics but I tried to keep it relatively straightforward and interesting even if you have no programming experience. I hope you enjoy it!

-Hilltop

November Update

Hi all,

Our first PS2 translation released earlier this month and a lot of progress has been going on behind the scenes on future patches.
The first draft for b.l.u.e. has been completed and apart from a little bit of graphical work the patch is fully in the final editing and testing phase of development. It shouldn'...

Racing Lagoon 1 Year Anniversary Stream

Hi all!

To commemorate the 1 year anniversary of the Racing Lagoon English patch, I'll be holding a livestream with the team at https://www.twitch.tv/hilltopworks

We'll be answering questions and telling stories about the creation o...

THE Maid Uniform & Machinegun English Patch Now Available!

Hi all!

Here it is, the mystery PS2 game that Cargodin and I have been working on for a while. This game was a great opportunity to become familiar with the PS2 and it has opened a whole new console's worth of potential for us.

I highly recommend checking out the game manual included in the zip file to learn how t...

Next Game Patron Name Roll-call

Hi all, 

The next mystery translation patch is going to be coming up very soon. If you don't want me to use your Patreon name in the credits, post a comment here with your preferred name or send me a DM.

-Hilltop

Monthly update

Hi all, time for another update.

b.l.u.e. is still coming along, however, we will have another English translation release before b.l.u.e. releases. Can't reveal the game yet, but its a smaller title on a console that isn't PS1, so that's going to be exciting for me. I've wanted to expand to other consoles for a while n...

Small Update on Projects

Hi all,

Technical work has wrapped on BLUE, barring some minor issues that might crop up along the way.

With that aside, I've started to tinker with another very highly requested game that is posing a very large challenge in reverse engineering, due to the game's reliance on proprietary image formats. I've mostly ...

B.L.U.E. Legend of Water English patch now in development

Hi all!

I'm excited to finally announce my next project! In partnership with talented game localizer Cargodin, I'll be developing an English patch for B.L.U.E. Legend of Water for PS1. It's taken a lot of work to get the game to a presentable state but you can finally see the fruits of that labor in the video. 

Small update on projects

Hi all,

Hope you've been enjoying Aconcagua. A 1.1 update patch will be released a bit later to fix some minor typos and Spanish language incongruities. 

I'm also deep in the hacking phase for the next English patch. A very talented translator has reached out to me with an offer to collaborate on a game so I'...

Aconcagua English Patch Release

Hello everyone!

Here it is, the English patch for Aconcagua!

I want extend my deepest thanks to everyone who supported this project. This title means a lot to many South American gamers who have wondered if they'd ever be able to play it. I'm honored to finally bring this game to the rest of the world and let peop...

Aconcagua Releases Monday, July 11th

Hi all!

Aconcagua will finally be made available in English, this Monday. This was an incredibly challenging project with many, many technical hurdles. This game is from a time when the idea of blending cinema with interactivity was still uncharted territory, and Aconcagua certainly stands out as an interesting and uniq...

Conquering the Mountain: How Aconcagua was finally hacked and translated

Hi all,

Here's the in-depth technical video on the hacking of Aconcagua. This project was honestly a roller coaster, with tons of obscure technical roadblocks that were solved with ingenuity and, well, a lot of luck. I hope you enjoy this video.

-Hilltop

Aconcagua Credits Name Roll Call

Hey all,

The Aconcagua patch is in the final stage of production. Please submit your preferred name that you want to appear in the credits by leaving a comment on this post. If I don't receive a response from you, I'll use your Patreon name.

-Hilltop

Next translation patch game poll

Hi all,

With Aconcagua nearing completion, I want to do something new and see how people feel about some different games given just their description. Pick the poll options that seem the most appealing to you, without trying to guess too much about what the actual game is. When I did the poll on twitter, many people mad...

Harmful Park English Patch v1.1

Hi all,

This is an update for the Harmful Park patch that fixes the audio desync that occurs on real hardware, as well as a very minor visual glitch. A big thank you to the people who reported the issue, and tt zop who helped me test the fix.

-Hilltop

vvvvvv Download link here

Progress update for June

Hi all!

Just want to give everyone an update on the ongoing projects.

Aconcagua is nearing completion, with only the last few chapters needing translation and then full game QA. When the patch is released, an in-depth video on the technical and creative challenges of creating the patch will be released for Develop...

Developer Secrets: Racing Lagoon Hacking Deep-Dive

Hi everyone,

Here's the latest episode of Developer Secrets where I go in-depth on the technical process of hacking Racing Lagoon and other games for localization. This is a very technical and programming-oriented presentation that touches on each of the challenges that are faced when trying to turn a Japanese video gam...

Harmful Park English Patch Release!

Hi everyone,

Here's the English patch for Harmful Park! This was a fun side-project to work on due to the image formats and the possible potential of using the tech for other games.

I did mention before that I would release the tool I used for extracting and editing the sprites and tiles, and I would like to hear ...

Harmful Park credits roll-call

Hi all!

I'm putting this post out there for people to submit the name they want to use in the credits for Harmful Park. If I don't get a response by next Friday either here or via PM, I'll go with the name you use on Patreon.

-Hilltop

Harmful Park English Patch coming...next week!

Hi all!

Time to show off what I've been working on behind the scenes, and its an English patch for the extremely vibrant and off-beat shmup Harmful Park for PS1!

The fully completed patch will be released next Friday on April 22nd.

A ton of engineering work went into this patch, and even if the script isn't ...

Translation projects update!

Hi all, just want to fill you in on what I've been busy with recently.

The biggest thing I've been working on is a tool to extract and edit sprite and tile data from PS1 games. There are a couple of games I'm looking to translate that store text in these formats and can't be translated without such a tool. As a bonus, I...

Aconcagua Progress Update!

Hi all, just a small update on the progress on Aconcagua.

The draft for the entirety of Disc 1 is complete and inserted! I've also started work on some (hopefully) shorter projects with smaller scripts that I will reveal when they are complete. These might be even more obscure games than what you were anticipating, but ...

Racing Lagoon Developer Secrets Episode 4: The demo disc

Hi all, the final episode of Racing Lagoon's Developer secrets video is here, and its a bit of a doozy. This episode goes into early beta content that I datamined out of a pre-release demo that Square released.

Here's the link:

https:/...

Progress update!

Hey all, here's a little update on the projects going on.

First up, there's still one more episode of Developer Secrets coming for Racing Lagoon. It's going to be about beta content found in the pre-release demo disk of the game and has some of the most interesting things I've found so far.

Progress is also going ...

Racing Lagoon full script release!

Hi all,

I've received a few requests to release the full Racing Lagoon script so here it is!

There is a whole treasure trove of unused text and developer commentary in here, and I am hoping someone might catalogue it for the TCRF someday. 

-Hilltop

vvvvvvvv Download link down here

Progress update on Aconcagua

Hi all!

Just a small progress update on Aconcagua. Before translation can begin in full swing, a whole bunch of technical work has to be done. Here's roughly where I'm at with it:

Subtitles:

✔️Image decompressor

✔️Image compressor

✔️PNG -> BIN converter

✔�...

Racing Lagoon English Patch v1.1

Hi all,

This updated patch fixes some minor language and typos, and improves the handling of the Easy Mode car greatly. This should be the final patch for Racing Lagoon, provided no large errors are found.

-Hilltop

Illustration by @Cargodin

↓↓↓↓↓ Download link here, includes instructi...